Al-Fatiha: Difference between revisions

It is also called ''Umm Al-Kitab'' ("the Mother of the Book") and ''Umm Al-Quran'' ("the Mother of the Quran");<ref name="Molla sadra ">{{cite book | title=Tafsir al-Quran al-Karim | author=[[Mulla Sadra]] | pages=1:163–164}}</ref><ref name="Ibn Kathir">{{cite book|last=Ibn Kathir|title=Tafsir Ibn Kathir|url=http://www.quran4u.com/Tafsir%20Ibn%20Kathir/001%20Fatihah.htm}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Hadith - The Book of the Commencement of the Prayer - Sunan an-Nasa'i - Sunnah.com - Sayings and Teachings of Prophet Muhammad (صلى الله عليه و سلم)|url=https://sunnah.com/nasai/11/39|access-date=2020-11-30|website=sunnah.com}}</ref> ''Sab'a al Mathani'' ("Seven repeated [verses]", an appellation taken from verse 15:87 of the Quran);<ref name="Ibn Kathir"/> ''Al-Hamd'' ("praise"), because a hadith narrates [[Muhammad]] as having said that [[Allah|God]] says: "The prayer [al-Fātiḥah] is divided into two halves between Me and My servants. When the servant says, 'All praise is due to God', the Lord of existence, God says, 'My servant has praised Me'.";<ref name="khoi">{{cite book | url=| title=[[Al-Bayan Fi Tafsir al-Quran]] | author=[[Abu al-Qasim al-Khoei]] | pages=446}}</ref> ''Al-Shifa''' ("the Cure"), because a hadith narrates Muhammad as having said: "The Opening of the Book is a cure for every poison.";<ref name="Bihar al-Anwar">{{cite book | title=[[Bihar al-Anwar]] | author=[[Muhammad Baqir Majlisi]] | pages=89:238}}</ref><ref name="Wasā'il al-Shīʿa">{{cite book | title=[[Wasā'il al-Shīʿa]] | author=[[Al-Hurr al-Aamili]] | pages=6:232}}</ref>{{Primary source inline|date=May 2015}}, ''Al-Ruqyah'' ("remedy" or "spiritual cure").,<ref name="Ibn Kathir"/> and al-Asas, "The Foundation", referring to its serving as a foundation for the entire Quran <ref>Joseph E. B. Lumbard, "Introduction to Sūrat al-Fātiḥah," ''The Study Quran''. ed. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Caner Dagli, Maria Dakake, Joseph Lumbard, Muhammad Rustom (San Francisco: Harper One, 2015), p. 3.</ref>

Muslim commentators often believe past generations of [[Jews]] and [[Christians]] as an example of those evoking God's anger and those who went astray, respectively.<ref name="Leaman">{{cite book|last=Leaman|first=Oliver|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=isDgI0-0Ip4C&q=%22The+Prophet+interpreted+those+who+incurred+God%E2%80%99s+wrath+as+the+Jews+and+the+misguided+as+the+Christians%22&pg=PA614|title=The Qur'an: an Encyclopedia|date=2006|publisher=[[Routledge]]|isbn=0-415-32639-7|editor=Leaman, Oliver|page=614|quote=The Prophet interpreted those who incurred God's wrath as the Jews and the misguided as the Christians.|author-link=Oliver Leaman}}</ref><ref name="interpretation2">{{cite book|last=Ayoub|first=Mahmoud M.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sIXpFtvp2JYC&pg=PA49|title=The Qur'an and Its Interpreters: v.1: Vol 1|date=January 1984|publisher=State University of New York Press|isbn=978-0873957274|page=49|quote=Most commentators have included the Jews among those who have "incurred" divine wrath and the Christians among those who have "gone astray".(Tabari, I, pp. 185-195; Zamakhshari, I, p. 71)|authorlinkauthor-link=Mahmoud M. Ayoub}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|author=[[Ibn Kathir]]|title=The Quran Commentaries for 1.7 Al Fatiha (The opening)|url=https://quranx.com/tafsirs/1.7|accessdate=24 January 2020|work=QuranX}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|author=Al-Amin Ash-Shanqit, Muhammad|date=10 October 2012|title=Tafsir of Chapter 001: Surah al-Fatihah (The Opening)|url=https://sunnahonline.com/library/the-majestic-quran/431-tasfir-of-chapter-1-surah-al-fatihah-the-opening|accessdate=24 January 2020|work=Sunnah Online}}</ref><ref>{{cite AV media|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iti-dplakf4|title=The greatest recitation of Surat al-Fatiha|date=6 June 2007|people=Al Kindari, Fahad|publisher=Sweden [[Dawah]] Media Production (on behalf of High Quality & I-Media); LatinAutor - Warner Chappell|access-date=20 December 2019|quote=The saying of the Exalted, 'not the Path of those who have earned Your Anger, nor of those that went astray': the majority of the scholars of tafseer said that 'those who have earned Your Anger' are the Jews, and 'those that went astray' are the Christians, and there is the hadeeth of the Messenger of Allaah (SAW) reported from Adee bin Haatim (RA) concerning this. And the Jews and the Christians even though both of them are misguided and both of them have Allaah's Anger on them - the Anger is specified to the Jews, even though the Christians share this with them because the Jews knew the truth and rejected it and deliberately came with falsehood, so the Anger (of Allah being upon them) was the description most befitting them. And the Christians were ignorant, not knowing the truth, so misguidance was the description most befitting them. So with this the saying of Allaah, 'so they have drawn on themselves anger upon anger' (2:90) clarifies that the Jews are those that 'have earned your Anger'. And likewise His sayings, 'Say: shall I inform you of something worse than that, regarding the recompense from Allaah: those (Jews) who incurred the Curse of Allaah and His Anger' (5:60)}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Surah Al-Fatihah, Chapter 1|url=https://www.al-islam.org/enlightening-commentary-light-holy-quran-vol-1/surah-al-fatihah-chapter-1|accessdate=11 December 2019|work=[[al-islam.org]]|quote=Some of the commentators believe that / dallin / 'those gone astray' refers to the misguided of the Christians; and / maqdubi 'alayhim / 'those inflicted with His Wrath' refers to the misguided of the Jews.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|author=[[Tafsir al-Jalalayn|al-Jalalayn]]|title=The Tasfirs|url=https://www.altafsir.com/Tafasir.asp?tMadhNo=1&tTafsirNo=74&tSoraNo=1&tAyahNo=7&tDisplay=yes&UserProfile=0&LanguageId=2|accessdate=7 February 2020|work=altafsir.com}}</ref> Critics of Islam, such as [[Andrew Bostom]], view this as an exclusive condemnation of ''all'' Jews and Christians from all times.<ref>{{cite news|author=[[Andrew Bostom|Bostom, Andrew]]|date=29 May 2019|title=Ramadan Koran lesson: Curse Jews and Christians 17-times daily: Part 1|work=[[Israel National News]]|url=http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/23948|accessdate=9 December 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|author=[[Andrew Bostom|Bostom, Andrew]]|date=29 May 2019|title=Ramadan Koran lesson: Curse Jews and Christians 17-times daily: Part 2|url=http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/23949|accessdate=9 December 2019|work=[[Israel National News]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|author=Shrenzel, Israel|date=4 September 2019|title=Verses and Reality: What the Koran Really Says about Jews|work=[[Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs]]|url=http://jcpa.org/article/verses-and-reality-what-the-koran-really-says-about-jews/|accessdate=8 December 2019}}</ref> However, most Islamic scholars have interpreted these verses as referring exclusively not to a specific group of people but instead interpret these in the more general sense as, "evil consequences which man brings upon himself by wilfully rejecting God's guidance and acting contrary to His injunctions."<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Asad|first=Muhammad|url=http://www.muhammad-asad.com/Message-of-Quran.pdf|title=The Message of the Quran, Commentary on Surah Fatiha|publisher=|year=|isbn=|location=|pages=23–24|quote=According to almost all the commentators, God's "condemnation" (ghadab, lit., "wrath") is synonymous with the evil consequences which man brings upon himself by wilfully rejecting God's guidance and acting contrary to His injunctions. ... As regards the two categories of people following a wrong course, some of the greatest Islamic thinkers (e.g. Al-Ghazali or, in recent times, Muhammad 'Abduh) held the view that the people described as having incurred "God's condemnation" - that is, having deprived themselves of His grace - are those who have become fully cognizant of God's message and, having understood it, have rejected it; while by "those who go astray" are meant people whom the truth has either not reached at all, or to whom it has come in so garbled and corrupted a form as to make it difficult for them to recognize it as the truth (see 'Abduh in Manar I, 68 ff.).|author-link=Muhammad Asad}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Shafi|first=Muhammad|url=http://www.islamicstudies.info/quran/maarif/maarif.php?sura=1|title=Ma'ariful Qur'an|pages=78–79|author-link=Muhammad Shafi Deobandi}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite book|last=Ali|first=Abdullah Yusuf|url=http://www.ulc.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/English-Quran-With-Commentaries.pdf|title=The Meaning of The Noble Qur'an, Commentary on al-Fatiha|publisher=|year=2006|isbn=|location=|pages=7|quote=...those who are in the darkness of Wrath and those who stray? The first are those who deliberately break God's law; the second those who stray out of carelessness or negligence. Both are responsible for their own acts or omissions. In opposition to both are the people who are in the light of God's Grace: for His Grace not only protects them from active wrong ... but also from straying into paths of temptation or carelessness. The negative gair should be construed as applying not to the way, but as describing men protected from two dangers by God's Grace.|author-link=Abdullah Yusuf Ali|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170312164616/http://www.ulc.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/English-Quran-With-Commentaries.pdf|archive-date=2017-03-12|url-status=}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=|first=|title=Tafsir al-Kabir, al-Razi, التفسير الكبير‎, Tafsir Surah al-Fatiha|publisher=|year=|isbn=|location=|pages=}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=|first=|title=Al-Kashshaaf, Al-Zamakhshari, الكشاف‎, Commentary on surah al-Fatiha|publisher=|year=|isbn=|location=|pages=}}</ref><ref name="Maududi2">{{cite book|last=Maududi|first=Imam Sayyid Abul Ala|url=http://www.englishtafsir.com/Quran/1/index.html|title=Tafhim Al Quran|author-link=Abul A'la Maududi}}</ref>